Navy Football 2006: A Year In Photos

A photographic journey through Navy's 2006 season. All photos taken by Dan Nettina.

The 2006 season started with East Carolina coming into Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, as Skip Holtz's veteran ballclub looked to play spoiler for a Navy team with high expectations. In a dogfight against the Pirates, the Mids ultimately came out on top, as Brian Hampton's hard-nosed running style propelled his team to a 28-23 victory against an ECU team which would finish the regular season at 7-5. It wasn't a perfect performance by Navy, but already there was reason to be optimistic for the 2006 season.

After the encouraging start against East Carolina, Navy fans were optimistic that the Mids would dispatch of I-AA Massachusetts with relative ease. Unfortunately it was anything but. In what I've proclaimed the "ugliest win by a football team I have EVER seen" the Mids barely escaped the Minute Men in what could best be described as a massive multiple car accident on a football field. Navy put the ball on the ground seven times, turned the ball over four times, and managed to do very little on offense. Amazingly, they still won. If senior safety DuJuan Price can salvage anything from an injury riddled season, its that he probably saved the game with a red zone interception to stop a UMass scoring drive.

After destroying Stanford on the road the previous week to start out 3-0, a confident Navy team returned to Annapolis to face off against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Lead by their quarterback Paul Smith, the Golden Hurricane were able to come out on top in a 24-23 victory which left Navy fans at a loss for words. Yes, Harmon's missed PAT in overtime lost the game for the Mids, but a late comeback by Tulsa, staged with the help of a million wide receiver screens, ultimately took the momentum from Navy.

After the Tulsa lost, the season still looked relatively uncertain, despite a 41-17 pounding of UConn on the road the following week. On October 7th the Mids traveled to Colorado Springs to take on the Falcons of Air Force in a classic rivalry game. A win would propel the Mids into prime position for their fourth straight Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, while a loss would put the team's goals in jeopardy. Fortunately for the team, the Midshipmen held on in a 21-17 win, in the process sending the Falcons on a downward spiral which would culminate in Fischer DeBerry's firing.

The Rutgers game, what can you say? After starting out 5-1, the Midshipmen came into homecoming against a ranked Rutgers team which has yet to lose a game. Whatever chance the Mids had at keeping it close went out the window as Brian Hampton's season came to an abrupt end when he blew out virtually every ligament in his knee, in effect demoralizing the entire team. This was a close game until two third quarter blocked punts broke it wide open for Rutgers, as the scarlet Knights cruised to a 34-0 win.

At 5-2 a Bowl berth was certainly attainable for Navy going into the Notre Dame game, but thoughts of victory weren't on anyone's mind with quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku Enhada making his first start. Still, the Mids made it a very interesting game for at least a half as Kaipo-Noa exposed Notre Dame's defense and led two scoring drives. Although Navy would ultimately fall 38-14, Navy fans had reason to hope going into the final four games.

Ah, Temple. Good times. After beating up on Duke and Eastern Michigan, Navy returned home for senior day against the Temple Owls, who had won only one game all season. Kaipo-Noa played his best game of the year as he marched Navy's offense up and down the field all day en route to a 42-6 victory. The Midshipmen defense was especially stout, blowing up the line of scrimmage and constantly disrupting the Temple offense. With the win, the Mids improved to 8-3 and secured a Bowl bid with the Meineke Car care Bowl.

After the win against Army, Navy went on to the Meineke Car Care Bowl to play the 23rd-ranked Boston College Eagles. In a game which has emotionally drained me and left me devoid of any further insight, the Midshipmen ultimately fell, but finished off another productive year at 9-4.